iPhone Apps Burn Up the Sales Charts

The app business is booming and Apple is cashing in bigtime on the first 30 days that the iPhone and iPhone 3G have been able to download and implement third party programs through their own App Store.

In that first 30 days, users have downloaded more than 60 million programs and while most of those downloads were free, Apple still managed to average $1 million each day in revenue from the App Store. According to their deal with developers, the makers of the programs receive 70% while Apple only takes 30%.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said they don't expect to make their money on software. He hopes to usher in a new era of cell phone competition that relies on software rather than hardware to make sales. So, just as iTunes was really about selling ipods, the App Store is looking to push sales of Apple phones and the iPod touch.

If the million dollars a day pace keeps up, it could mean a huge boom for individual software developers as well as gamemakers like Sega whose Super Monkeyball was downloaded 300,000 times at $10 each in just the first 20 days it was available.

Be sure to check out our feature this Saturday on the apps you can't go without as well as a point-counterpoint look at the iPhone vs. The Jitterbug.